DrewEckhardt

Skratch has managed to grow grey skydiving, and in spite of BASE jumping Brendan has gotten old enough that we have to tease him about his age.

Yeah like work, saving for retirement, watching network television, drinking large amounts of beer, and making sure you have a newer more expensive SUV than your neighbors.

They'll explain their opinions which will probably contain inaccuracies (some people have especially interesting ideas about pop-tops) and local biases.

If you want a degree you have to like the area arround the school enough to finish. Given a choice between going to school in the rural midwest and being a ski bum I'd have picked the later. CU Boulder was a nice compromise which mixed a good engineering school with a livable city and decent snow. It's worth noting that Boulder averages 320 days of sun a year. Seattle averages 226 days of cloud and 154 days of rain. While scattered clouds and rains which stop inflate the Seattle numbers, Boulder's a lot more hospitable to skyding and the dropzone is much closer (you could make a couple jumps during your lunch hour if you wanted). I lived in Boulder for nearly 15 years and have managed to hang arround Seattle and the east side since May, 2006. Skydiving and snowboarding are both compelling reasons to favor Boulder.

That's a perfect wing loading for accuracy under an F111 canopy. I like my 245s better at .7 pounds/square foot than .8 (me and my beer belly load my favorite parachute somewhat beyond 1.8). If the winds are high enough that you end up landing backwards they're probably gusty which means you shouldn't be jumping anyways. Should also be optimal for student jumps. That said if you're still under the canopy after graduating from your student program you'll have to pay more attention to your spot than you would at higher wing loadings and will have less fun under canopy. Most people would probably not want to buy a first canopy at that wing loading. OTOH when I learned to jump rentals were $25 and I could have thrown my first rig out after 68 jumps and come out ahead financially. Since AFF students had first priority and the DZ didn't have many rigs, buying at jump 13 also meant that I got to jump more than once a day. Your situation will vary.

Spectra linesets are way out of trim by 500 jumps (for 725 lb spectra; the smaller lines would go faster) and steering lines are done in half that (Spectra lines have shrunk, Vectran gets fuzzy). Vectran, HMA, etc. get worn out. Ask your rigger to look at the lines and measure against a trim chart if you're curious. with hindsight, i should of asked my rigger how my lines were when i got it repacked i know... oh also, i have slinks on my main with maybe 70 jumps on them, i guess i dont need to worry about that?

Kel-Tec P3AT .380. Decent trigger. No slide lock. Smaller than a lot of .25s. Not expensive (< $300)

Rigs: More fatalities have occurred under popular ones because there are more out there. When equipment and skydiving change we sometimes learn new things, like when smaller spectra lines became increasingly popular and a couple people went in with main-reserve entanglements when their suspension lines snagged on main container grommets. Multiple brands of rigs were affected. All modern rigs are safe, although limited number of manufacturers sell containers which take small mains and reasonable sized reserves . Main: Smaller faster popular ones kill more people, because the leading cause of death under canopy is pilot error. The same mistake under a student canopy might get you dusty, a broken leg under a lightly tapered canopy at a pound per square foot, and dead under an elliptical at 1.6 pounds per square foot. The availability of higher performance canopies doesn't make Sabres (originally placarded at 1.1 pounds per square foot maximum) and Stilettos (1.3, 500 jumps required) any slower than they were ten years ago. Reserves: Older ones. Unreinforced reserves were sufficient when people limited freefall speeds to 120 MPH with wing loadings no higher than a pound per square foot. Spanwise reinforcing tapes are needed when you have a premature at high altitudes or freeflying, CYPRES fire at higher than stable freefall speeds, higher wing loading, or insufficient time to slow down from freefly speeds prior to deploying. PD reserves have always had span-wise reinforcing tapes. Precision added them with the R-max series. The new Smart has span-wise tapes. PISA added them to the Tempo around 2001 IIRC. Lots of us like the way PD reserves land too.

Yeah, but now we're not allowed to have containers of liquid larger than 3oz all of which must be in a transparent one quart freezer bag, unless they were purchased from within a secure area of the airport (because terrorists are gung ho enough to die for their cause, but not dedicated enough to take menial jobs at airports to sneak stuff in). Be sure to wrap it well if you check it though. The Arrogant Bastard in my luggage broken and left everything smelling like beer.

Why would you not think that they paid some sort of sales tax on it when they purchased it? Because they have an FEIN and the oil is effectively for resale like the rest of what goes into their food?

Boulder rocks. 15 minutes to a turbine DZ with Super Otter & King Air. January is often cold although I never went a month without jumping (I don't jump when it's below 40 degrees on the ground, and Colorado is a dry cold which makes a difference) when I lived there for over a decade. Good skiing (you can hit Eldora 45 minutes away after morning classes). Good hiking. Great restaurants. Decent music. Living is not cheap unless you share a place with other people. In theory you could commute, but the surrounding areas are getting expensive and one DUI would wipe out any savings you had. The weather sucks for skydiving in Washington and the snow is not as good as in the rockies.

You can always ship your rig via USPS. Insurance isn't inexpensive, although if your time is worth anything...

If you net over $400 in self-employment income you are required to report it to the IRS and pay them 15.3% for FICA+Medicare taxes. If you're doing that work for a company they'll let the government know about the income. Better to file and pay in April of the following year than be surprised with interest and penalties.

We're going to pay for Bush 43's spending (inflation adjusted increases of discretionary non-defense spending have been higher under him than Clinton and Carter) one way or another. Higher taxes now, higher taxes later to pay interest on the debt, or in devaluation of the debt through inflation which also wipes out our savings. Preserving his tax cuts only delays the inevitable. The itemized deduction and personal exemption phase-outs were added during Bush 41's presidency in 1990. Clinton only extended them in 1993. Prior to 1913 America did not have a national income tax. The exemption for single people was $3000 ($60,444 in 2006 dollars) and married couples $4000 ($80,592). Up to $20,000 in earnings ($402,962) were taxed at 1%. People earning over $500,000 ($10,074,057) paid the astronomical top tax rate of 7%. Only 1 in 271 Americans were subject to any tax under this scheme. Social Security was introduced in 1935 with a rate of 1% on the first $3000 ($43,664 in 2006 dollars). The employer rmatch was added later. Since then the Democrats have not been solely responsible for the huge increases in spending and the taxation to support it. While the Republicans had a reputation for limited government they don't live up to it.

A refund is payback from an interest free loan (average term 6-8 months depending on when you file) which I wouldn't willingly make to anyone who isn't a friend or family member. I'd much rather accumulate interest on that money at 5.4% right up until April 17th at which point the IRS gets a big check. As long as the amount of that check is not a surprise. Sent the Feds a $7000 check the tax year I got married and state $700.

7-24. The jump the student is going on doesn't count because it hasn't been completed yet.

7 to 24 skydives, after which students become licensed jumpers with no regulatory limits on who they can jump with.

100 jumps was considered enough to JUMP MASTER static line students. There's less responsibility in hopping out with students who've been cleared to self-jump master.

Well the douchebags who did nothing other than yell and beep their horns got ignored, sure. I really don't understand why nobody else jumped out and tried to physically confront this guy. I find it disturbing. If I didn't have a gun on me I wouldn't intervene against an armed attack against some one who wasn't a friend or family member.

Location. I tried to drive less than an hour and the muppets always had some excuse about their airplane being broken or tandem master out sick. Next closest was two hours+ so we went there. For AFF I went to the new DZ 15 minutes away.

My wife told me I never have to jump off a cliff again. Who'd actually want some one they love risking death and serious injury? She's also said that we should get a new digital camera so she can take pictures of me parachuting. I'm very pretty when I land. I do pay a lot more attention to currency and have more reservations about oraganized events. It's not nice taking your SO with you and having some one die ten feet away.

99.2% of Americans have refridgerators and 98.2% color TVs. Our definition of poverty is a bit different than the rest of the world.

To the extent that your total deductable expenses exceed $5150 for single people and $10,300 for married couples. Bellingham is in Washington (perhaps among other places) with no state income tax, and the sales tax deduction isn't that big. And if you sell too soon, the capital loss on a personal home is non-deductable. Oops.

Note that you have to consider the standard deduction here and implications of being married - an unmarried couple that owns a property can have one partner take the itemized interest deduction while the other gets the standard deduction, while both halves of a married couple must take the same option. Assuming 85% of your mortgage payment (30 year loan at 6% interest, about 30% down, King County Washington taxes) is going to mortgage interest and property taxes, a $1000 a month payment isn't going to get a married couple over their standard deduction. That's for a $150K loan. As a single person making $100K+ with 5% state taxes, you're allready doing better by itemizing and every dollar is post tax. Tax rates vary. With a 33% combined state and federal marginal rate your money goes 50% farther, while in the 15% bracket you're only getting a 17% bonus. The math and market conditions are going to be very personal.

If we assume 45 million (42.9M estimated in 2004) enrolled in Medicaid, that's $4548 per person not including states' contributions (up to half) and hospital write-offs due to unreimbursed medicaid expenses (paid for by the rest of us with private insurance). I've been in group plans that cost $350 a month or $4200 a year for far better coverage. If we assume 45 million (42.5M in 2005) enrolled in Medicare that's $9164 per person not including the $226 per month premium and high deductables. That's even worse!